Avila loves the pink nuns because they wear pink. I noticed they have provided a schedule that starts at 5:15am! Ours doesn’t-but here’s a typical kind of day:

7ish Heleyna wakes for a feed. Al is up and getting ready for work and he brings me a coffee. He is indeed a .

7:40am – Alex, Iona, Ronan and Avila join Heleyna and me on the bed and we say a decade of the rosary a short litany of saints and have a quick overview of the day. Then everyone gets moving.

8-9am I am doing house hold tasks; kitchen, washing etc while the biggies are getting dressed and having breakfast. Iona helps Heleyna have breakfast and I help Avila get dressed. Iona starts Maths around 8:30 and I get Heleyna dressed unless one of the boys is around to do that for me.

9am Ronan will either do Maths or piano.

9:30 Avila goes to nursery on Mon, Tues, Fri

Ronan has lessons; reading, Latin, Bible story and so on. Each lesson is quite short; 15mins at most as Charlotte Mason recommends. He is learning to concentrate as time goes on and picks up information quickly.

Ronan then has time to play or work while I work with Iona on English, history, science etc. depending on her timetable. She can then work independantly so I can go back to Ronan.

12.00 Avila is collected from nursery-usually by one of the boys while Iona and I get lunch sorted.

1.00 The afternoon is for craft, cooking, reading etc.  There is also discussion time where we plan future ideas or go over things I think she needs to know. At the moment we are using it to look at the Dorothy Sayers book The Mind of the Maker and for the prelims of the business project we will be doing on how to set up a sweet shop.

2.15ish pm I read to Iona

3pm; school is officially finished. Tidy up time and phone calls etc time.

4pm the little ones get TV time if they want it. I do household stuff and the biggies are up to whatever they like

5pm start cooking andkitchen stuff. Now I know some of you will think why does it take so long to cook the tea? But remember Heleyna is not taking care of herself -she is little miss interrupter.

6:10 ish Al gets home and we have tea as a family; discuss the day etc.This is an important part of what I see as the home ed ‘atmosphere’ that Charlotte talks about. The children learn table manners, turn taking and how everyone is allowed to speak and is worth listening to. Heleyna tries to take a turn too  sometimes quite loudly!

7pm story time with the little ‘uns. It’s usually with me but sometimes they will ask one of the biggies to read to them.

7:30pm Dad takes the little ones to bed and does prayers with them. I stay down with the biggies and we get time to chill and chat. Sometimes we watch TV or a DVD or Alex might be playing some kind vid game with Josh.

When Al comes down we have family time and then it’s bed time.

Not quite pink nuns kinda life-but we love it.